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The Access Netfront browser makes a decent fist of web browsing. The W995's accelerometer will flip the screen to landscape mode when your turn it on its side and you can zoom in or out in ten per cent increments.

There are also options to copy and paste, search web pages for key words, save pictures and view pages as text only

UNBOXED: in the box you get the handset, speakers, USB cable, charger and premium earphones

Connectivity

The Sony Ericsson W995 is well served with connectivity options, including quad-band GSM, GPRS, HSDPA 3G fast internet connection (up to 7.2Mbps), Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0 with stereo A2DP. It will also hook up to Mac or PC for syncing or charging via USB 2.0.

Messaging

POP3 email was easy to set up, similar to the procedure with many modern smart phones – input your email address and password, and you're ready to go.

EMAIL: POP access is easy to set up although is harder to use in comparison to its big-screen cousins

Call quality

We didn't encounter any problems with sound or call quality – the speaker offers a clear, realistic tone and there were no dropped calls during our test period.

A-GPS

The onboad A-GPS is supported by Google Maps and worked without a hitch, easily finding our north London location, even when we were indoors.

Sony Ericsson's NearMe app is a little basic but it's easy to use and succeed in giving us information on local facilities such as cinema showings and restaurants. There's also a preloaded trial version of the Wayfinder Navigator sat nav.

Memory

The 118MB of onboard memory won't keep much of your music and videos, but fortunately it comes with an 8GB Memory Stick Micro card.

Incidentally, this could be one of the last Sony Ericsson phones to include this feature, as the company has announced it will be moving to the more popular microSD format next year.

Battery

Battery life wasn't bad for general phone use. The specs promise up to nine hours talk time and 370 hours standby, but we barely managed two days with around an hour or so each of web browsing, video watching and music playing.

And considering there are so many multimedia temptations on offer, a bigger battery would have been welcome.